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Salma Hayek Reveals She Once Had 30 Animals, Faked an Affair to Rescue a Puppy

By Desiree Murphy 2:37 PM PDT, June 3, 2016

Salma Hayek loves animals. Like, really, really, really loves them.

In a sneak peek from next week's Graham Norton Show, the Septembers of Shiraz star hilariously reveals a moment when she faked an affair on her husband, François-Henri Pinault, in order to save a puppy. At the time, the couple was already parents to 30 other animals.

"I had promised my husband I was going to stop because at the time I had 10 dogs, five parrots, alpacas, horses, cats, and by the way, one without a tail, the other one without a leg," Hayek, 49, explains. "And they always find me, they come to me these animals -- which he doesn't believe me, but they do -- and I promised him no more."

"We were up to 30 animals and I swore no more," she adds. "And I was there [filming a movie in Bulgaria] and a little puppy who was abandoned and was going to die -- I won't tell you the sad story because this is like a comedic show -- he came to me and I couldn't help it, and I picked him up. His name is Ochoa, after the goalie [Guillermo Ochoa] of the soccer team in Mexico."

Hayek explains that she was so "terrified" to tell her husband about what she had done, that she came up with a fake story to make him feel less angry.

"I came up with this brilliant idea to pretend that I was having an affair with somebody, and at the end I would say, 'No, it's not an affair, I picked up a dog' and then he would feel better," she says.

"So I left him and message, 'You must call me at this time, we need to talk. It's very important,'" Hayek confesses. "And I never do that, and this time, [he said] 'OK, what happened?' And I said, 'Listen, I feel so terrible, I don't know how to say this to you and I know this is not going to go down well and I'm really nervous and please have mercy on me.'"

She also asked that he be "patient" and "understanding," adding that she was "so tired and was so lonely here for so many days."